Latest Release: Dream Box
Legendary American jazz guitarist and winner of 20 Grammys, Pat Metheny, presents his upcoming solo record “Dream Box”, which will be available on CD, vinyl, or digital formats on June 16 2023.
The album promises to be Metheny’s most intimate record to date: “Dream Box is an unusual recording for me; a compilation of solo tracks recorded across a few years that I discovered while listening on tour. During the extensive touring period that made up most of 2022 forme, I found a forgotten folder on my drive. I often make quick recordings of things; a new tune, a new (or old) guitar, a standard tune, or just to try something out. I have a spot in my laptop where I stash these things. And truthfully; often never to beheard again.
Usually, the only time I get to listen to my own stuff is while on the road. I often say I live on output, with little or no time for input. That changes on tour, where suddenly there seems to be more free hours in the day, be it on a bus or in some far-flung hotel room. Occasionally, those moments offer a chance to rummage around in the files to see if anything interesting may lie there.
This past year was a particularly busy travel year for me, with about 160 performances worldwide. In the course of all that travel, I found myself returning to that discovered folder lots of times, genuinely surprised at what I was finding in there. From those listening sessions, I gradually sifted through everything to find this program emerging as a coherent whole. I found that I had unintentionally gotten to a destination I had not planned for, and I am excited to share what was buried in there.
These nine tracks were my favorites and added up to something unique for me. I never played any of these initial tracks included here more than that once. These are really moments in time, and in fact, I have almost no memory of having recorded most of them. They just kind of showed up.” (Pat Metheny)
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Credits: Jimmy Katz (1), John Peden (2)
About the Artist
Releasing over forty albums throughout his illustrious career, 20-time Grammy Award winner, Metheny is the only artist to be awarded Grammys in 12 different categories including Best Rock Instrumental, Best Contemporary Jazz Recording, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, and Best Instrumental Composition, among others.
First bursting onto the international scene in 1974, his unbounded musical range is nearly without peer. Over the years, he has performed with artists as diverse as Steve Reich to Ornette Coleman to Herbie Hancock to Jim Hall to Milton Nascimento to David Bowie while seamlessly projecting his own identity regardless of setting.
Born into a musical family, Metheny started on trumpet at the age of 8 before switching to guitar at age 12. By the age of 15, he was working regularly with the best jazz musicians in his hometown of Kansas City, receiving valuable on-the-bandstand experience at an unusually young age.
By the age of 18, he became the youngest teacher ever at the University of Miami. At 19, he became the youngest teacher ever at the Berklee College of Music, where he also received an honorary doctorate more than twenty years later (1996).
Over the years, Metheny has garnered widespread acclaim from critics and peers, winning countless polls as Best Jazz Guitarist and awards, including three Gold-certified albums for Still Life (Talking), Letter From Home, and Secret Story. While the only artist to have been awarded 20 Grammy Awards in 12 different categories, his band The Pat Metheny Group won an unprecedented seven consecutive Grammys for seven consecutive albums. In 2013, Metheny was inducted into the Downbeat Hall of Fame being only one of four guitarists to be included, joining Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery. In 2018, Metheny became an NEA Jazz Master, the highest honor awarded to a jazz musician in the USA.